Vacation Ride Day 4
Day 4 - June 16
We debate whether to leave the shelter or spend another day out of the wet. The rain ultimate cleared up as fog slowly set in. We decide to push forward hoping things will clear up further and make camp north of Roanoke. Everything gets packed and we head out to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The fog is thick. I've seen quiches with less density than this mess. I lead for the most part struggling with my visor. As the rain picks up, the fog doesn't lessen at all. At some point, I realize we're missing people behind us. I pull over where John, Kristen and I wait for the others. While we're waiting, Kristen needs to pee so the goes behind a big rock and comes back complaining that she was dry before needing to be relieved. Kevin, Karen and Becky finally show up. Kevin was about to pee his pants he had to go so bad and pulled off a few scenic views back. At this point I'm seeing the benefit of having Bluetooth communication helmets.
When we head back out, I'm in the back but realize that I had undone my helmet strap but didn't actually remove it so I pull off to secure it. We catch back up with everyone at the exit to Roanoke and we immediately start looking for a place to stay. The cold and rain didn't agree with any of us especially Karen. Cold is her Kryptonite. We stop at Holiday Inn Express. John and I venture over to the visitor center but that didn't really help much. We decided it would be best to just bite the money-bullet and pay for the hotel room before tolerance was pushed to the maximum limit.
We change and head back out in the mommy-van. We go to Dicks to get Kevin and Karen a cheap rain suit. I got new flops as I had brought watershoes that still had not dried after 2 days without use. We head on to Star City, a motorcycle shop where Kristen bought new gloves and Karen almost bought riding pants (they didn't quite fit). Everyone was getting cranky again so food was in order. Mexican this time. El Toro Was the place I think. Great food and priced pretty well. Drinks were pricey though. Cold Stone hit everyone's ice cream spot and we were contented.
Getting back to the hotel, Kristen and I decided that laundry was in order. The hotel had no laundry facility so we went to ghetto-mat. It was fine. At one point a group of kids, probably 14ish, decided to dance around our bikes so we gave them the stare of doom. It would be awful breaking my foot off of some kid's ass. We finished laundry knowing having clean clothes would make riding 100% better the next day and headed back for some sleep.
John was watching "Jesse James is a Dead Man" and we ended up watching all of the episodes through the current one - the ice road episode. This was our first night with TV so we really put it to good use.
We debate whether to leave the shelter or spend another day out of the wet. The rain ultimate cleared up as fog slowly set in. We decide to push forward hoping things will clear up further and make camp north of Roanoke. Everything gets packed and we head out to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The fog is thick. I've seen quiches with less density than this mess. I lead for the most part struggling with my visor. As the rain picks up, the fog doesn't lessen at all. At some point, I realize we're missing people behind us. I pull over where John, Kristen and I wait for the others. While we're waiting, Kristen needs to pee so the goes behind a big rock and comes back complaining that she was dry before needing to be relieved. Kevin, Karen and Becky finally show up. Kevin was about to pee his pants he had to go so bad and pulled off a few scenic views back. At this point I'm seeing the benefit of having Bluetooth communication helmets.
When we head back out, I'm in the back but realize that I had undone my helmet strap but didn't actually remove it so I pull off to secure it. We catch back up with everyone at the exit to Roanoke and we immediately start looking for a place to stay. The cold and rain didn't agree with any of us especially Karen. Cold is her Kryptonite. We stop at Holiday Inn Express. John and I venture over to the visitor center but that didn't really help much. We decided it would be best to just bite the money-bullet and pay for the hotel room before tolerance was pushed to the maximum limit.
We change and head back out in the mommy-van. We go to Dicks to get Kevin and Karen a cheap rain suit. I got new flops as I had brought watershoes that still had not dried after 2 days without use. We head on to Star City, a motorcycle shop where Kristen bought new gloves and Karen almost bought riding pants (they didn't quite fit). Everyone was getting cranky again so food was in order. Mexican this time. El Toro Was the place I think. Great food and priced pretty well. Drinks were pricey though. Cold Stone hit everyone's ice cream spot and we were contented.
Getting back to the hotel, Kristen and I decided that laundry was in order. The hotel had no laundry facility so we went to ghetto-mat. It was fine. At one point a group of kids, probably 14ish, decided to dance around our bikes so we gave them the stare of doom. It would be awful breaking my foot off of some kid's ass. We finished laundry knowing having clean clothes would make riding 100% better the next day and headed back for some sleep.
John was watching "Jesse James is a Dead Man" and we ended up watching all of the episodes through the current one - the ice road episode. This was our first night with TV so we really put it to good use.